What happens when a Twitter client hits the token limit

Remember when Twitter said that client-app developers would need to “work with us directly” and “need our permission” to exceed 100,000 user-login tokens?

Well, now we know what that means. Atta Elayyan, developer of the Tweetro client for Windows 8, sent Windows Observer the result of his attempt to get Twitter’s permission. Here’s what the quadrant robot at Twitter wrote:

Thank you for reaching out to get clarification on our developer policies. As you know, we discourage developers from building apps that replicate our core user experience (aka “Twitter clients”). We know that there are developers that want to take their passion for Twitter and its ecosystem to unique underserved situations. As such, we have built some flexibility into our policy with regard to user tokens – which went into effect September 5th, 2012.”

… Unfortunately, It does not appear that your service addresses an area that our current or future products do not already serve. As such, it does not qualify for an exemption.

In other words: “Even though we don’t currently have a Windows 8 client, we might have one in the future, so yours isn’t allowed.”
[..]
The effective rule, therefore, is even simpler: “Don’t build anything for Twitter.”

Marco hit the nail on the head here, whatever Twitter is up to, they are just not good to work with right now.